Former NHL Hockey Player Georges Laraque on His 'Journey Toward Veganism'

The Montreal Vegan Festival is celebrating its third year this weekend, and a special guest might just bring in a bigger crowd from last year’s 10,000 strong audience! The Suburban notes that “former NHL hockey player, heavyweight enforcer and proud vegan” Georges Laraque will be a new spokesperson on board for the festival. Laraque told the publication about his decision to adopt a vegan diet that made him one of the few vegans in the NHL in 2009:

“Since 2009 I’ve been a vegan. In my last year in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens I had decided to become a vegan. Then I started talking about it. It was something I tried that I wanted to share with everyone.”

Laraque, who is a former deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada, dispelled any notion that a plant-based diet would make him weak or affect his ability to play, stating that the opposite actually occurred:

“I was a 6’3″ monster. That wasn’t going to change if I ate grass or steak. People have this idea that all vegans are skinny little people who weigh 150 lbs soaking wet. Other players thought I was going to lose 100 pounds and that they could fight me. But I actually got stronger and a lot of players decided they wanted nothing to do with me.”

The former NHL player was of course not immune to the “where do you get your protein?” questions, and stated:

“Carnivores seem to be more worried about my protein intake than I am. But everything you eat has some protein in it. Protein is just a combination of amino acids. When you learn that, you know you can get your protein from lentils or quinoa or mushrooms or anything. At the end of the day I wasn’t lacking anything. Being a vegan actually introduces you to a wider variety of food.”

And according to Laraque there is no better time than the present to be vegan in Montreal since “vegan culture has really taken off” and “there’s never been more vegans and vegan restaurants in Montreal than right now.”

The Montreal Vegan Festival website states that Laraque “regularly gives presentations on topics such as sports, motivation, racism, bullying, veganism, charity work and politics,” and his talk, titled “My Journey Toward Veganism,” is scheduled for Sunday November 6 at 4:45pm!

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Lena Tachdjian

Lena Tachdjian is a certified nutritionist and a writer, who splits her time between Canada and Armenia. She writes about nutrition, health, food, recipes, culture, travel, animal rights, and more. You can follow her on her nutrition and travel blog www.thetravelingchamelian.blogspot.com